Hanover, N.H.—Two students at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth were selected for Physicians of Tomorrow Awards by the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation. Alexandra Coria and Laura Ostapenko are among just 18 rising fourth-year medical students across the nation who received the awards.

Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine is the only medical school in the country to have two medical students selected for this honor.

Recipients were nominated by their medical schools and chosen based upon academics, financial need and community involvement. Each student will receive a $10,000 scholarship to defray medical school expenses. The AMA Foundation has awarded over $61 million in scholarships to deserving medical students since 1950.

Laura Ostapenko

"Alexandra and Laura are outstanding medical students and excellent examples of the physician leaders we are training here at the Geisel School of Medicine," says Dr. Wiley "Chip" Souba, dean of Dartmouth's medical school. "It's inspiring to see their hard work, academic success and dedication to improving lives recognized."

"We are recognizing the exceptional qualities of these students at this stage in their careers," stated AMA Foundation President Clarence Chou, MD. "We want to acknowledge their significant accomplishments in academics and community service and hope to follow them as they progress in serving their patients and their communities."

The AMA Foundation makes it a priority to ensure the best and brightest students can access medical education by providing high-impact tuition assistance scholarships. Medical students in the U.S. graduate with an average debt load of $162,000. A large debt burden may deter many from practicing in underserved areas or primary care medicine.

The AMA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt foundation, is dedicated to improving public health by raising funds and providing philanthropic support to high-impact health and medical scholarship programs. Visit www.amafoundation.org for more information.

The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, founded in 1797, strives to improve the lives of the communities it serves through excellence in learning, discovery, and healing. The nation's fourth-oldest medical school, the Geisel School of Medicine has been home to many firsts in medical education, research and practice, including the discovery of the mechanism for how light resets biological clocks, creating the first multispecialty intensive care unit, the first comprehensive examination of U.S. health care cost variations (The Dartmouth Atlas), and helping establish the first Center for Health Care Delivery Science, which launched in 2010. As one of America's top medical schools, Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine is committed to training new generations of diverse physician leaders who will help solve our most vexing challenges in health care.